History of SFX Youth Sports in Brooklyn

SFX Youth Sports has provided sports programs to the Brooklyn community for over 100 years. The spirit of offering youth sports to the community began in 1904, when the original St. Francis Xavier Church building on Sixth Avenue and Carroll Street was moved by horses and tree trunks to President Street. The St. Francis Xavier Program included baseball, basketball and bowling. The early years saw city-wide CYO basketball tournaments held at the Lyceum. The “Jerry Reilly” tournament was one of the largest basketball tournaments in the city. The New York Golden Gloves boxing tournaments were also held at the Lyceum.

In 1968, Jack Murphy & Al Leonard took over the baseball program. The teams were named after American Indian tribes: Apaches, Oneidas, Senecas, Mohawks, and Cayugas. The program expanded and provided opportunities for both boys and girls ages 5–15 to play instructional youth baseball. By the early 80’s, SFX expanded its outreach to the Brooklyn community at large. Other volunteers that have admirably run the program through the years include George McKeon, Frank Taylor, Jimmy Duffy, John Graham, Jack Franca, Ron Marino, Stan Lehman, Jim Friel, Javier Rosario, and John Piccard.

The Girl’s Softball division was started in 1993. It now serves girls aged 6 to 15.

The SFX HUSKIES travel team program was added in 2004 led by Christopher Rios.

In 2008, John Piccard started SFX Tee-Ball and re-started the SFX Softball Program.

SFX Baseball, Softball and Tball now boast over 100 teams.

Flag Football

In 2007, SFX Youth Sports with the help of board members Barbara & Tom Henderson, launched a bold initiative to expand our services to our communities by adding NFL Flag Football for 11-17 year-old boys. Introduced in 2007, it was the first program of its kind in the Park Slope/Prospect Park area.

The program now has expanded to a Five-Division format for Co-Ed kids from 7-8 years old (Rookie Division) and Co-Ed 9-11 years old (NFC Division); the All-Boys 12-14 years old (AFC Division); the All-Girls 12-14 years old (LIBERTY Division); & the All-Boys 15-17 years Old (NFL Division).

Soccer

Catching the soccer wave that spread over the USA, SFX Soccer was born in 1984 headed by two volunteers, Ed Ezra and Ken Stevens. A slow and steady interest grew over the years, and by the 1990s when Denis Meadow and Ron Marino headed the program, participation had grown to over 250 players. The program went on brief hiatus in 2003 and was relaunched in 2005 by Ron Fink and Lenny Rodriguez. SFX Soccer has been run by Coach JP Devesin since 2010.

Girls Volleyball

In 2010 SFXYS introduced Girls Volleyball to our list of programs. The focus of this sport is on teaching volleyball skills and techniques, game play and strategies, and building confidence and camaraderie as a team. The program vision was brought to us by Coach Samantha Razook-Murphy and Kate Piccard.

Basketball

As mentioned above, SFX was one of the pioneers of CYO Basketball in New York City. Our Basketball program included Boy’s and Girl’s programs. The girls’ basketball team in the 1960s was under the old rules of half-court play. Our basketball program was ended in the 1990’s until 2018.

Perry Solomon successfully re-started SFX Basketball in 2018 as a Co-Ed program.

Travel Softball

SFX combined forces with the Brooklyn Angels to offer girls the opportunity to play travel softball. SFX Brooklyn Angels is headed by Jordy Trelles.

Floor Hockey

Coaches and parents Morley and Celeste Ivers hail from Canada. Hockey fans for life, Morley and Celeste started the program in 2020.